Gilgit-Baltistan is the region under Pakistani control and was formerly known as the Northern Areas. It is the northernmost political entity within the Pakistani-controlled part. It borders Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province to the west, Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor to the north, China to the northeast, the Pakistani-administered state of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) to the south, and the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir to the southeast.

The territory became a single administrative unit in 1970 under the name “Northern Areas” and was formed by the amalgamation of the Gilgit Agency, the Baltistan District of the Ladakh Wazarat, and the states of Hunza and Nagar.

With its administrative center at the town of Gilgit, Gilgit-Baltistan covers an area of 72,971 square kilometers and has an estimated population approaching 3,000,000. Pakistan considers the territory separate from Kashmir, whereas India and the European Union consider the territory as a part of the larger disputed territory of Kashmir that has been in dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947.